Ashes Flying
by Fairycoordinator
Summary: Ash Ketchum is a normal student until his school is attacked by the terrorist organization Team Magma. When his girlfriend Dawn is captured, he and the remaining survivors vow revenge. However, all is not as it seems as the students start uncover the secrets of how they came to be, and before they know it they are plunged into a war that is not their own. Pearlshipping and Amour
1. The Beginning of the End

There was a single shift in the air, for an instant.

The bomb went off with the force of a thousand suns.

He was thrown to the side, his body cracked as it hit the floor and stopped. And for a second he lied there, and let the ceiling debris floated slowly into his hair.

What had just happened?

Ash could feel something wet dripping down his face. He thought he knew what it was, but at the same time, he couldn't think; he could barely breathe as smoke swirled all around him.

He sat up. He was in hell, he thought for a moment. The classroom no longer remotely resembled one, instead it was in flames. It was black around the edges, and the desks were twisted into strange shapes. He didn't want to look at the people he knew were still somewhere there, in the midst of the smoke and rubble, but not moving. But he was moving, moving fast; he barely glanced back before he tripped and pulled himself into the hallway.

Ash ran down the hallway, faster than he thought he ever had in his life. There were flames to his left, flames to his right, half of the building gone, blasted, and he kept running, and running, and the smoke hurt his lungs.

Eventually the hallway became nothing to navigate. A giant pile of rubble loomed; and Ash grappled at the pieces, trying to find a foothold, something that he could climb up on. Suddenly he felt scared. What if he died? What if his life ended here? His grew more and more frantic as the mountain seemed to crumble under his hands; what if he _couldn't _climb it?

The screams Ash had heard behind him were slowly subsiding, he didn't want to think about that, no, he thought about only himself and getting out _alive _from whatever had occurred, and finally he found the edge of a piece of one of the fallen walls. He pulled himself up onto it, and looked out.

Ash could see trees, pine trees, those were welcome trees. He was almost there. In his eagerness he accidentally lost his footing and came crashing down the rubble mountain, he felt something sharp dig into his shoulder and his cheek again, and blood got in his eyes.

He felt himself hit solid ground. Lying on his back, he saw the sky. He was momentarily relieved. He was okay, he thought. If I couldn't hear anything or smell anything, I could pretend like nothing had happened. But he could see the smoke and taste the blood and feel his raw fingers; and as the debris he had displaced came rolling to stop beside him, he knew he could not stay in one place for very long.

Ash slowly got to his feet. He walked away.

When he finally got the courage to turn back, he looked at what had been his school for the last three years. It was half gone, and the other half was in flames.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Four Months Ago<strong>_

Ash sat by himself under the tree. There was leaves everywhere, because whoever had been assigned to raking had obviously flaked. Ash actually didn't mind, because it was actually kind of nice to see all the different colored leaves everywhere. He felt like gloating about it; the student body president, Cilan, was such a neat freak that the leaves "marring" the courtyard would surely tick him off. Sometimes Ash intentionally misplaced things in the student council meetings just to annoy him. Not to be mean or anything, but just to ruffle him.

Fall Break had just ended, Ash was having a hard time getting back into the feel of things. Not to mention it was his last year at the academy, so it was becoming harder and harder to focus in all his classes. But still, he thought, the only thing he was good at was battling. He had no idea why he was even sent to Pokemon Tech in the first place; compared to everyone else, he lacked the motivation. Even though he was Vice President this year, he knew people only voted for him because he was friends with them.

But he was still here, in this prep school almost ten months a year. He missed his old friends and Kanto, which he only got to go back to during the summer. Most of the other kids went home every break, but a plane or train ticket back to Kanto from Kalos was so expensive that his mom could only afford it once a year. Even his school uniform alone cost his mom about half a year's salary. Delia was a single mother, and though Red had left them the house, he hadn't left much else. But she had been so excited for Ash to go to a fancy school that she had taken out a mortgage on the house to pay tuition.

Most of the other students, however, were a different story entirely. They came from wealthy, educated families; and they were all _driven, _and going somewhere. And everyone thinks I'm the same, Ash thought. Well, not everyone. There was someone, the only person at the school who really knew. Who really _understood _him. She didn't really care about all that, or that Ash wasn't really quite the hero everyone thought he was.

She was Dawn, and she walked down the path towards him; he could hear the sound of her shoes clicking on the stones. Her hair was dark and long, and it moved behind her and down her back. Ash watched her come closer and she sat down next to him, on the dry grass; drawing her knees to her chest.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," he said, "how was the Orange Islands?"

"Okay. Too many tourists, but it was all right. My mom was annoyed the whole time because of it, though. She made me my dad listen to her complain about the resort service, even though she didn't want to go to the beach. Anyway, I got you something."

She dug around in her school bag and extracted a small key chain with a dangling tangerine.

"I know it's kind of lame, but I thought it was cute. Maybe you can hang it in your dorm or something."

"No, I like it. Thanks, Dawn." He actually didn't know what he was going to do with it, as he put it away, but it was the thought that counted.

"We have first term exams coming up soon," Dawn said, looking up at the sky. Ash loved looking at her eyes. They were so big, and blue, and they were never dull. Dawn herself was always smiling, which made him want to smile more. Ever since they had started dating he had tried, both unconsciously and not, to make himself more like her. And why not? She was perfect. If it was up to him, he and Dawn would drop out of school and try to make it on their own in the world. They could travel around, and then eventually settle down and have a family. But Ash knew she would never go for that. Dawn was responsible, and she never did anything if her parents didn't want her to. And Ash knew that running away from school was _not _something her parents would allow. Not that it would ever happen.

"You haven't started studying, have you?" Dawn asked. She looked straight at him now, waiting for a response. Ash also knew that this was something she did when she didn't want him to lie. It always worked.

"No, not really," he said, apologetically. He really couldn't care less about the exams, but Dawn cared, so essentially in concept he felt he should as well. She frowned.

"You know how hard the last ones were. We should start today or tomorrow."

"Do we have to?"

"You want to get into a university, right?"

"You know I don't."

She sighed. It was true, though, Ash did not want to finish his schooling and she knew it. He had always planned to travel around and be a professional trainer, even though he knew it was hard to make it. In any case, he knew he couldn't afford to pay for university, which was even more expensive than Pokemon Tech. He found it funny that he wanted to be a trainer, which was what his father had run off to be. But for whatever reason it had always stuck in his mind, and now that he was seventeen it hadn't changed.

"Don't worry, only one more year, Ash. Then you'll be free," Dawn said, somewhat sarcastically, but Ash knew as she said it she meant it. He wasn't free at this school , the only freedom he felt whatsoever was when he was with Dawn. He wasn't prepared to lose her after they graduated, but he preferred not to think about that until he absolutely had to.

"Then I'll be free to do whatever I want with you," he said, and she rolled her eyes. A leaf had come to rest in her hair, and Ash laughed.

He leaned over to lift it off her hair, and touched her face. As he went to kiss her, however, the school bell rang and Dawn sat bolt upright.

"I'm going to be late!" she said, grabbing her bag and brushing dirt off her skirt. She gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Bye, Ash, don't forget to meet me at the library tonight! You're going to pass if even if you don't want to!" She ran off, her feet clicking on the path again.

Ash sighed and looked up at the clock on the physics tower. He still had ten minutes. He wasn't sure why she always needed to rush everywhere. Suddenly someone poked his head hard from behind.

"What the hell-" he said, whirling around. It was Drew, laughing.

"What are you doing, vice president? You don't want to be late for class," said Drew in a sing song voice, seating himself down next to Ash and putting an arm around him.

"Get off of me," said Ash, shaking Drew off.

"Aww," said Drew, rubbing his shoulder, "you're no fun. Why did Dawn run away? Please don't tell me you aren't as mean to her as you are to me?"

"No," said Ash. "She didn't want to be late to class."

"She's a weird one," said Drew, picking at the grass at the foot of the tree. "Super hot, though."

"Shut up. Aren't you going to be late for class?" said Ash, looking elsewhere. He liked Drew, but wasn't quite sure why he was friends with him. They didn't exactly get along all the time, but there was just something about each other that they liked. Ash had a lot of friends, but he supposed that besides Dawn Drew would probably be his closest one.

Drew was annoying most of the time, but he was funny and lighthearted where Ash was not. All the girls liked Drew, because he was good looking and prone to pulling pranks in class, though none of them ended well. Drew switched girlfriends every few months, while Ash had been dating Dawn since his second year. If Ash stopped stopped to think how different they were, it mystified him how they had ever become friends. But they were, and they got along.

"Were in the same class, remember? Biology?" said Drew. "I bet you don't even have your book, do you."

"Oh crap, I don't," said Ash. His school bag was lighter, but he hadn't noticed until now. "Now I'm going to be the one that's late. You can go on ahead."

"Naw, there's no point. I didn't do my homework anyway. If I'm going to get a demerit might as well get two."

They stood up and walked started down the path to the dorms, talking. Battle class for the day had already passed, and Ash was bored. Biology was his hardest class next to biology, and he was fairly certain the professor didn't like him all that much. Actually, he wasn't sure why anyone liked him, but for some reason, most all his classmates seemed to. Even most of his teachers would excuse him from tardies or allow him late homework every once in a while. His mother once told him that people liked him because they saw what a good person he was, but Ash didn't think that was true. He didn't think he was a particularly good person, nor did he think he was a bad one.

On the stairwell he passed two of Drew and his friends, Misty and May. He had known them and hung out with them since they were all freshman. They were still friends now in their senior year, and Ash still ate breakfast and lunch and dinner with them everyday at their table by the window in the dining hall. Well, not really _their _table, but they had sat there for so long that no one else ever took it. It was always him, Drew, May, Misty, Dawn, and some other boys and girls; but mostly it had always been the five of them that were the close friends.

"Why are you guys going to the dorms? You're going to be late for class," said May, pausing along the stair rail. "Let me guess, Drew, you forgot something."

"Why do you always assume it's me?" moaned Drew, tugging on her blazer sleeve. "It's Ash. He left his book in his room."

"Ash? Really?" says May. "That's a surprise."

"It's not, really," said Ash, slightly embarrassed. She knew full well he wasn't a model student. Everyone always teased him about the vice president thing. But it had been Dawn's idea for him to run, since she had been the treasurer since freshman year. Basically all he had done was gone around to people's tables and said hey, I'm Ash Ketchum. It would be cool if you could vote for me. And apparently that strategy had worked, because now he had to attend boring meetings where Cilan discussed what he considered "pressing" issues. But if it made Dawn happy, whatever. He could put up with it for another year.

"We're all going to be late now," said Misty, looking at her watch. "Come on, May," she said, and attempted to prevent May from throwing a punch at Drew, who ducked. As the two girls disappeared down the stairs, Drew looked back at them, laughing as loudly as he could pretend to.

"Ha ha, May, you can't catch me!"

May turned around and stuck out her tongue before she turned the corner and walked out of sight. Drew ran his hands through his hair.

"Man, she is so hot."

"You don't stand a chance," said Ash, though that was a lie. Even when he was dating other people, Drew always had a thing for May. And Ash was pretty sure May liked him to. They had had to kiss in a game of Spin the Bottle once, and Ash and Dawn were positive after watching them that they definitely had a thing for each other. And probably the rest of the school also thought so, unbeknownst to everybody but May and Drew.

"Yeah, you're probably right," said Drew, as he and Ash continued up the steps. "But I know I'll get her by the end of the year."

"Good luck with that," Ash snorted. Drew punched his shoulder.

"Come on, be a little more supportive! Dawn was way out of your league, but I still said go for it!"

"I'm not going to respond to that."

By the time they reached the dorms and Ash had retrieved his book from his room, the second bell had already rung. By the time they actually made it through the classroom door, class had already been in session for ten minutes.

"Why are you late?" said the teacher, seeing them standing there, unsure of what to do, in the back of the class. The rest of the class turned around in their desks to watch whatever punishment Ash knew was in for him. The teacher looked at him steadily. So did Ash.

"Sorry, sir, I forgot my book."

"Then why did it take you twenty minutes to retrieve it, Mr. Ketchum?"

"Becuase I walked, sir."

"Becuase you walked. And why are you late to class, Mr. Thompson?"

"Becuase I was helping him find his book, sir," said Drew, scratching the back of his neck.

"And why would Mr. Ketchum need any help finding a text book?"

"Becuase Mr. Ketchum has memory problems, sir."

The class giggled and the professor's expression evolved from one of mild annoyance to genuine displeasure. Ash looked at Drew. Drew grinned back at him. What was Drew thinking, anyway?

"Sorry, sir. It won't happen again," said Ash, hoping to repair some of the damage.

"I hope not. That's two demerits for each of you and detention after dinner. Don't be late."

"Yes sir," they both said. Ash wanted to be annoyed at Drew for provoking the professor, but he found he could not keep a straight face for long as he walked to his seat. The only thing he regretted was having to tell Dawn that he couldn't study with her because he had detention.

As he sat down someone clapped him on the back, and he smiled.

"Mr. Ketchum, face the front now!"

He turned.

* * *

><p><strong>Present Time<strong>

The smoke coming from the building was almost too much to handle. Ash could barely see anything but for the vague outline of what was once the main building, and for a moment he was relieved. He was safe.

But he couldn't see anyone else.

And he couldn't see Dawn.

All the sudden his head spun and he staggered; Dawn had been in the accident too. Where was she? Was she alive? Ash tried hard not to vomit for the smoke and his own thought. What if she was dead?

She was so fragile, Ash could not see how she could have survived if something heavy fell on her, or if she got caught up in the flames. He saw some other people staggering out of the building now, but not Dawn. He scanned the buildings for a sign of her light skin or dark hair, but he saw nothing. She was gone.

But no, she wasn't yet, he didn't know yet. He tried hard to control his thoughts and his breathing, to think. What had been her last class before the explosions? It had been Honors English, on the far East wing. Ash found he could barely bring himself to look in the direction of the building. Finally he counted to three and forced himself to wrench his head and look.

The front half of the building was completely demolished, but the back half's frame was still standing. There was no fire yet consuming its insides. There could be hope left.

And without even thinking, Ash ran, across the blackened courtyard and the burning tree, to what could be Dawn still alive. He reached the wreckage and his heart pounded. What if he saw her dead. He didn't think he could handle it. But worse would be if he let her die.

He swatted the smoke away with his hand and took a step into the darkened wreckage, pulling obstructions out of his way. He didn't want to look at the bodies of students that were surely dead, in case he knew any of them. But he was forced to, because any of them could have been Dawn.

And at last he found her, near the close edge. She lay on her back, looking at the sky. Blood seeped from her abdomen and for a terrible moment he thought she was dead. But her mouth was open, and she gasped in air.

He scrambled over onto her body.

"Dawn, Dawn, it's me."

"Ash?" she breathed.

He thought she had a piece of shrapnel or something stuck in her stomach, but he didn't want to move it or do anything for fear of hurting her.

"Ash, your face…" she whispered, reaching up and wiping the blood on his cheek.

"I'm fine, what about you?!" he said. "We need to find help, have you seen any of the teachers?"

"No, I'm stuck under this thing."

He hadn't noticed before, but her legs were stuck under a piece of rubble. He didn't think she could move.

"Hold on, Dawn, I'll get you out of there, just hold on-"

Ash moved around to the other side and tried to slide the giant piece off of her. He couldn't do it. His hands were shaking. He looked at Dawn's face, and looked back at the rubble, twice, three times, and he clenched his fists together. He had to pull himself together. If he wanted them to both live.

The piece of wall proved moderately easy for him to get out of the way, and he was relieved to see that her legs weren't crushed. Blood stained the front and collar of her white shirt, and it appeared to be spreading. Ash didn't know what to do. He had never been in a situation like this before. But he just knew he had to get them away from the unstable wreckage.

All the sudden a roar burned his ears. Then his hair was flying, and his clothes whipped in the strong gust of sudden air, and he shielded his face from the dust flying his way. When the dust cleared he felt himself being smacked away from Dawn.

He rolled onto the floor, cheek stinging, and stood up again as men converged on Dawn; he could no longer see her. With not another option left he threw himself at one of the men, who in surprise toppled backwards, and Ash grappled his way forward towards Dawn.

His eyes met her watery ones, and she smiled.

"I love you," she said.

"No, Dawn!" Ash hit the floor again as he was shoved back, this time hitting the wall. He tried to get up but there was a pain in his ribs, and it took him a moment to remember how to breathe.

But he couldn't breathe, because Dawn was lifted up and carried to a helicopter just outside the classroom. He saw her one of her hands, with chipped nail polish, dangle from the man's arms. And then she was taken into the the helicopter, and the door closed behind her.

Ash pulled himself off the ground, but he was thrown back by the force of the helicopter blades beating the air as it began to rise into the air.

He knew he was screaming her name, and he knew she couldn't hear him, and the last he saw of the helicopter as it flew up and up was the black letter M.

* * *

><p>Fairycoordinator: Here's my new story you guys. I took down Pokemon Battle Academy because I realized I had no idea where that was going. But don't worry, I am definitely going to finish Too Far Away. I will update it tomorrow, I promise! Thanks for reading this one. It's third person this time, so we'll see how that goes.<p> 


	2. Buried Under

Ash stood there, looking at the smoke coming into the sky. For a minute he felt could not breath. Dawn was gone. He stood in the wreckage of the classroom. He had her blood on her hands. He felt dizzy.

He heard yells coming from the side of the classroom, getting louder. Someone his age, it seemed, but he could not make himself turn around. At least there's someone else alive, he thought. He stared at his hands, wishing they would clean themselves.

Suddenly someone barreled into him from the side and he took a step back. The person stopped to put their hands on their knees, catching their breath. But the boy wasn't wearing the school uniform, instead, he was wearing gym clothes. And he wasn't dirty. Or hurt.

"Ash…" panted the boy, and straightened up. It was Paul.

"Oh my god, what happened to your face? Are you okay?" Paul was acting frantic, which only made Ash more anxious.

"They took Dawn," he said in monotone.

"What? Is she alive?"

"I don't know," said Ash. "She had something stuck in her stomach. There was a helicopter. It had an M on it."

He saw Paul's eyes drift to his red hands, but he didn't know what else to do with them but to keep them in front of himself.

"What… happened? Why is the school destroyed?" asked Paul.

"Where were you?" asked Ash slowly.

"I was out at the tennis courts," said Paul. "I heard the bang and I ran over. But I just got here. Where is everyone?"

"I don't know," Ash said.

"You never answered any of my questions. Are you okay? I think your forehead is…"

"I'm fine." Really, he didn't know what the state of his forehead was, but he had so much adrenaline rushing through him that he couldn't feel it.

Paul ran his fingers through his hair as if he didn't know what to do with them.

"We need to find help," Ash said. He started to walk back towards the main campus. He didn't care if Paul followed him or not.

"Wait, don't leave me," Paul said, running to catch up. "How are you so calm?"

"I'm not," Ash replied. "I'm just can't think right now."

Ash looked at the ground while they walked back. He didn't want to see anything until he had to. When they reached the front of the school, he looked up. The entire front walk was decimated, and the windows all shot out, the shattered glass in heaps on the ground. The left side of the main office had been blown away.

But the worst part was the lack of people. He saw no one. Aside from Dawn, what about his friends? And what about the people in his classes, whose faces he saw every day? They were there, somewhere. Under the rubble, crushed by falling beams, burned in flames. But maybe not. If Dawn was dead, Ash wasn't about to let anyone else die.

"I'm going in," said Ash.

To his surprise, Paul nodded. "Right."

They made their way through the black that had been the front walk. The main doors were destroyed. Ash felt a sense of panic. They couldn't get in.

But Paul started to pull at the rubble, and Ash saw it crumble away.

"We can get through if you help me."

Ash gritted his teeth and helped Paul pick away at the wreckage. The inner layer proved far harder to dislodge than the first, and it was a half hour before they managed to forge an opening to the inside, their hands raw. But the hole was still too small, and it wasn't getting any larger.

Someone is going to have to help from the other side. I can fit through, I think. Finally an advantage to not having any muscle." He smirked.

Ash didn't think it was funny in this situation, but Paul was right. Ash wasn't that much bigger than Paul, but big enough that he wouldn't fit through the hole with ease. It proved to be a struggle for even Paul, however, and Ash had to help push him through the hole.

But he made it through, and soon the hole was big enough for Ash to hoist himself through it. Paul pulled him through and they collapsed on the ground, breathing hard.

The smoke was so bad inside that Ash was surprised Paul hadn't complained. He coughed a few times before standing up. He could barely see. He wondered if it was too late. It had, after all, been about an hour since the bomb went off. He couldn't hear anyone else.

He blindly felt his way through the haze. He knew there wasn't any classrooms until the main hallway split into two directions, but he couldn't remember how long it went on for.

Shorter than he had thought, however, because soon Ash hit the corridor wall and almost tripped over himself.

"I'll go to the left and you go to the right. If you find anyone bring them to the front of the school."

"Okay," said Paul, and he disappeared into the smoke.

Ash was alone. He made his way through the hallway with one hand to the wall, feeling his way there. The left side had been almost completely ruined. He didn't know how good his chances were of saving anybody. But by the time he made it to the first classroom, his eyes had adjusted a bit.

The door had been blasted open, and the classroom inside was completely destroyed. Even if there were students trapped inside, Ash knew he couldn't help. His heart sank as classroom after classroom yielded the same results.

He reached the flight of stairs, but he knew there was no chance of trying to save anyone who had been on the second floor. The stairs were ruined. One classroom to go.

To his surprise, the end classroom wasn't nearly as bad as the others. He thought it had been some kind of math class, but he never really went down this part of school. He had never At least he could see, a hole in the wall made light shine down.

He heard someone moan. He couldn't see where the person was.

"Hello?" he yelled.

"Under here," someone's weak voice called.

He followed the voice to the corner of the classroom. Ash could see the person's white hand extrude from under the teacher's desk. He ran over and crouched down.

"Ash," said the boy, and he smiled.

The boy had blond hair, and was skinny. Ash knew he had him in a few of his classes, but he couldn't remember his name. In fact, the same boy had been Drew's dorm partner in their second year, but Ash never bothered to find out what his name was. Still, however, Ash knew he who was, though he rarely noticed him. He was the boy that always got straight A's on all his tests, while Ash struggled to get even Bs. He was a little odd. At lunch and dinner, Ash would pass by him in the quad, and see him eating by himself. Every day. The boy had never seemed to mind, but he felt bad. And he still couldn't remember his name.

"Are you hurt?" Ash said.

"I think my rib is broken," said the boy. "The bomb only hit part of the wall, but then the power outlet exploded and well… I think everyone is gone."

"You're alive."

"While everyone was screaming I got under this table. There wasn't any time to warn them. I can't move, one of the desk legs caved in and I'm pinned under here-" he took a big gasp and coughed. His breath came heavy.

"Don't exert yourself," said Ash. "I'm going to pull the desk off of you, get ready."

The desk wasn't heavy at all, but it proved difficult to lift clear of the boy's body. Finally Ash managed to hoist the desk to the side.

The boy's chest was dark with blood, and Ash was afraid to move him. But how else was he supposed to get him out?

"It's not safe in here," said the boy painstakingly.

"You're right," said Ash.

"My name's Clemont, I can tell you don't remember."

Ash didn't know what to say.

"It's okay, by the way," said the boy. Suddenly he seemed to remember something. "Where is everyone else? Have you found anybody?"

"No, Paul is looking on the other wing."

"Are you sure there's no other survivors? Have you checked in the south wing?"

"The South Wing's gone."

"What about the dorms? Have you checked there?"

"You should worry about yourself, " said Ash. It was weird how concerned Clemont was for everyone. Did he really care that much? "Can you move?"

"I don't think so."

"Well then, Clemont, I'm going to have to carry you."

When Ash went to pick the other boy up, he gasped.

"Are you okay?" said Ash. Clemont's wound was bleeding again.

"I'm fine," he whispered. "I'm going to make it."

He groaned as Ash lifted him up. Ash tried his best to jostle him the least he could, but it was hard to weave around and through the debri and keep his body steady at the same time.

"Just hold on," Ash said.

When they reached the entrance, Clemont's face had gone pale. Luckily, though, it seemed Paul had been there first. The hole was enlarged. Ash struggled his way through it and made his way out into the stained sunlight.

He was both in shock and relieved to see other people, and a lot of them. They were haphazardly scattered around the front of the school, some sitting, some standing.

When he saw Ash, Paul ran up. "Did you get someone?"

"Yeah," saids Ash. "It's Clemont. He thinks his rib is broken. Where did all these people come from?"

"The middle classroom on the east wing was almost completely intact. There was about twenty kids in there, some are pretty bad, but most are fine. I checked the dorms. There were two girls in there that were a little scratched up, but I couldn't save anyone else."

Ash stared. Twenty people? That was all that was left from a school of eight hundred? And no adults? How could it be possible? He set down Clemont under a tree with some other students and went to see who else had come out alive.

Someone ran up to him and hugged him from the back.

"Ash! Oh my god, you're alive!"

He sighed in relief as he heard May's voice. She was okay.

She pulled him around to face her.

"Your face," she whispered.

"Everyone's mentioned that," he said. "Is it really that bad?"

"It looks awful," she said. "Sit down."

"No…" Ash said, but he did anyway.

May ripped off a piece of her shirt. "Whatever," she said, but her hands were shaking somewhat. She started to clean up the blood, and it stang every time the stiff fabric grazed his face.

"May, have you… have you seen anyone else?"

May's face went blank, and Ash automatically filled with dread.

"Misty's alive. The dorms caught on fire, though, and her shoulder got burnt. She's resting over there."

"And Drew?"

She bites her lip and Ash could tell that she was trying not to cry. "No one has seen him."

"He can still show up," said Ash, but he knew that they both knew that the chances of him showing up miraculously alive were slim.

"And what about Dawn? I thought she would be the first person you asked for."

Ash's breath caught. May stopped cleaning his face for a second.

"Oh, Ash…" she whispered.

"There was a helicopter. Some guys kidnapped her."

"What? There was a helicopter?-" Suddenly she fell silent. She took his hand. "I'm so sorry, Ash. Once we get help, I'm sure they'll find her."

"Thanks," he said, but he felt hollow. May said nothing and continued to wipe the blood off his face and his hands.

After a while, she finished. "You have a big gash across your right cheek, but it's stopped bleeding. It looks a lot better now. Don't worry, you'll still be good looking." She forced a laugh and Ash forced a smile.

Suddenly yells arose from the other side of the quad. May looked up.

"Look! There's more people!"

She got to her feet and started running, and Ash ran after her.

A group of three emerged from around the edge of the building.

"It's Drew!" said May, breathless.

When she got to him she ran up and hugged him. He winced and she let go. Seeing her hesitation, he laughed.

"See, I knew you liked me."

"Drew, don't be an idiot!" said May, but she smiled. Ash could tell she was relieved.

"You guys are okay," said Drew. "There was so much smoke around the physics room that we couldn't see anything. It took us forever to get out. My back got a scratch in it."

"But you're okay!" May says. "That's what matters."

"Where's everyone else?" asked Drew, frowning. "Is this it?"

"Yeah," said Ash stonily. "We couldn't get anyone else out."

Drew looked away pointedly. But luckily, the silence was interrupted by Paul's voice behind them.

"Hey, let's get everyone together. See what the situation is."

They walked towards the middle of the blackened grass, gathering up the injured as they went.

Ash counted. Seventeen passably healthy people and six injured. Twenty three people. Twenty three people only.

* * *

><p><strong>Four Years Ago<strong>

Ash let the screen door slam shut behind him. He dropped his backpack down on the floor and headed to the kitchen; he was hungry. School was boring. He had gotten in trouble again at lunch for playing tackle football on the field. Thank god it was his last month of middle school.

Before he could reach the refrigerator, however, his mom came running in and hugged him hard.

"What-" he started to say, confused. Delia had gotten a call from the principal today. She shouldn't be that happy.

She waved a letter in the air. "You got accepted to high school," she said.

"Woah, really?" said Ash. He was surprised. His mom had made him apply to plenty of schools, even though Ash really didn't care what school he went to. He had thought he didn't have a chance.

He turned the envelope over in his hands and looked at the address. Maybe it was Brentwood, which had a nice battling program and wasn't too far from their house. But it wasn't.

"Wait, I didn't apply to this school."

"Really, I thought you did," said Delia, frowning.

"Pokemon Tech," said Ash. "I've never even heard of it."

"Well, open it!"

"Okay…" said Ash. He tore open the envelope and pulled out a letter. It was typed on heavy paper, and a large crest adorned the header. He started to read it.

"Well, what does it say?" asked his mom, clearly excited.

"It says I made it in," said Ash. "But… that doesn't make any sense. I never even applied."

"Let me see it," Delia said, taking the letter from him and reading it aloud.

"_Dear Mr. Ketchum, we are proud to inform you that you have been accepted into Pokemon Tech for this upcoming school year. Attached is further information as well as other costs including tuition, uniform, textbooks, etc. We look forward to seeing you soon!"_

"That's all it says," Ash said. He looked back in the envelope where he had left the other paper.

"Tuition is… oh my god, we can't pay that."

Delia took the sheet from him. "Yes I can. This is for you, Ash. I want you to go to a good school."

"But we don't even know what this school is!" snapped Ash. "And anyway, I don't want to go. It's in Kalos."

"It says it's a boarding school," said Delia. "Doesn't that sound fun?"

"No. I don't want to leave my friends just to go to a prep school."

"Well, I think you should go. This'll be good for you. You'll stay out of trouble."

Ash sighed and walked out of the room, trying not to stomp his feet. His mom was always so adamant about him getting an education. Besides, he never even applied to the school. They just accepted him out of the blue. But apparently, his mom didn't find that the least bit weird.

The school year ended and Ash was not accepted to any more high schools, much to his disappointment. By the time summer had come to a close, Delia had decided that without a doubt he was going to Pokemon Tech, and no matter how much he complained she stood firm. He thought that she was more excited about the idea of him attending a private school then he was himself.

His uniform had come in the mail some weeks before, and it hung on his closet door. He hated it. It was so stiff and professional, and he was sure it made him look stupid. Put he had to put it on the next day, because that was the day the train would take him into Lumiose City, where from there he would take another train to somewhere else he didn't know. He had said goodbye to his friends already. It hadn't been as sad as he thought. Before he knew it, he had gone to sleep and woken up, and it was morning.

He hastened to pull the uniform on, as he was running late. His mom had told him to pack last night, but he still hadn't, so he threw as many random clothes in his suitcase as he could. And he took his Pokeball.

He got down to the living room, where his mom was waiting for him with a camera. He groaned. He hated taking pictures. But he stood for it, and it wasn't that bad.

"You look so grown up!" Delia awed and ooed over his uniform, and asked him for the millionth time if he had everything.

"I'm fine, mom. I'm gonna be late if I don't start walking soon."

"Oh. Well, have a great time, Ash. Take care and don't get into trouble."

"I'll try," he said. "See you."

She hugged him. "Don't forget I love you."

"I love you mom," groaned Ash.

"I love you too," Delia said. "Now go get 'em!"

Ash left before she could say anything else. He was afraid he wouldn't want to go if he didn't act like he didn't care. The train station was about a mile from their house, and he chose not to look back at his bedroom window, or Delia's garden that she always made him help with. When he got to the station he payed for his ticket without much difficulty. When the train came, he found a compartment and sat alone.

The train ride was a few days long, because an airplane ticket would have been too expensive. The ride was boring, and it was raining most of the time. Ash didn't have much to do, he wasn't a reader and he didn't care to try and socialize, so he looked out the window for hours, watching the regions flash by. He wondered why he even had let his mom convince him to put on his uniform before he even got to the main train. Apparently it had said in the letter that uniform was to be worn at all times to "represent" the school. A few adults on the train had asked him about Pokemon Tech, but he couldn't really respond as he didn't know anything about the school.

After what seemed like ages and ages, he took his suitcase down from the rack and stepped into the early morning sunlight of Lumiose City. It hurt his eyes. It was the biggest city he had ever set foot in before. He was for a moment bewildered before he remembered he had another train to catch.

His ticket said platform ten at nine o'clock, the station clock said 8:40. He hurried over a few platforms, and saw his train waiting, a sea of uniform-clad students before it.

He remembered he was a freshman and he didn't know anyone, so he tried to stay out of people's ways as he skirted his way through the crowd towards the train. Most everyone's parents had come to see them off, and most people looked as if they had a lot of money. Ash would have felt like the odd one out, but he didn't mind that much. He saw a sign that said "first year car" near the back of the train and he headed towards it.

A lot of other fourteen year olds were clustered around the car, and some of them stared at Ash a he passed. Ash boarded the train, and like before, found an empty compartment and sat by himself.

He looked out the window, down at the other students. Most were saying goodbye to their parents. But it appeared none of them knew each other. A girl by the front caught Ash's eye. She was skinny, with fair skin and long, swinging dark hair. He could tell she was trying not to cry. He thought she must not want to say goodbye to her parents. Her parents were expensively dressed; the mother wore some kind of fur coat and a big watch gleamed from the father's wrist.

A sudden slam made Ash jump; the compartment door slammed open.

"Hey, mind if I sit with you?" said the boy who stood there.

_Yes, _thought Ash, but he said, "It's fine."

Apparently not deterred in the slightest, the boy sat across from Ash. He grinned. "What were you looking at out there?"

"Nothing," Ash said, but he couldn't help but glance back at the girl.

The boy climbed over to the window. "That girl, huh? She's cute. The best part of this school is how short the girl's skirts are."

"That's not why I was looking at her…" Ash said lamely, but the other boy just smiled. Ash wasn't sure why he had been looking at her, but he was just attracted to her. Maybe she was interesting to him because she appeared to be one of the only students who were having a hard time saying goodbye to her parents, and the fact also that she had two parents and that they looked like a family. Obviously he couldn't explain this to the boy sitting next to him.

"I'm Drew, by the way," said the boy. He had light hair and a pointed face. He looked like the type of boys that the girls liked at Ash's old school. Ash had never had a girlfriend, though he had been asked more times than once. He just didn't really have an interest in any of the girls. They put him off the way they tried to act sweet to him and tried to flirt with him. Not one girl had acted natural to him in middle school. He wasn't expecting high school to be any different.

"I'm Ash," he said.

"So, Ash, what brings you to Pokemon Tech?" said Drew, in false properness.

"I have no idea. The letter just came in the mail."

"Me too! My dad swears it's a good school, though, and so that's why I'm here."

"Are your parents here?" Ash asked. He was curious.

"Hell no, they left ages ago. I asked them just to drop me off. I've been walking around the station for hours."

Ash nodded, not really knowing how to respond. The train bell rung, and the last few stragglers hurried on to the train. The engine started to move. The parents and siblings down below waved, and the train pulled out of the station, whizzing along the track. Ash looked out the window; the station was quickly out of sight.

"Are you just going to sit here the whole time?" said Drew. "Let's go find that girl you were looking at."

Ash smirked. "I think I'm good."

"Come on," said the other boy. "You're mean."

He looked at Ash. "Let's go."

"Fine," said Ash, begrudgingly. Secretly he was glad that someone had made friends with him.

They walked down the train halls, peering into compartments. The floor shook slightly from the moving train. Finally Drew tapped on one compartment window.

"I found her," he said. He opened the compartment door and stepped inside. The four girls inside looked up at him.

"Hey, ladies, my friend Ash here wanted to say hi to one of you."

"Goddamit, Drew…" whispered Ash under his breath. The girls were staring at him and he forced a smile.

"You there, in the middle," said Drew, pointing at the dark-haired girl from before.

"Me?" asked the girl.

"Yeah. Ash thought you were hot."

Ash glared at Drew as the girls giggled again. Why did girls always have to do that? The dark-haired girl wasn't giggling along, however, she simply blushed.

"Um, yeah, hi," said Ash, not wanting to look at the girl.

"Hi," she said, somewhat breathlessly.

"So… see you around," said Ash, and he ducked out of the compartment as quickly as he could. Drew waved at the girls, flashing a smile, before he shut the door behind him and followed Ash.

"What was that for?"

"What? I just introduced you to that girl. You should thank me. Why did you run away? They were totally into us."

"I didn't even get her name," said Ash, sighing. "Just...calm down."

"No time for that," said Drew. "Look at that girl."

He pointed to a girl with red hair, who was walking down the walkway.

"Don't bother her," said Ash.

Too late. Drew had already ran off and started talking to the girl. Ash had no choice but to follow him.

"Hey, you wanna come sit with us?"

"Really?" said the girl, unimpressed.

"Yeah, like in our compartment."

She shrugged. "Sure."


	3. Stranded

**Four Years Ago**

The girl that Drew had heralded into their compartment was named Misty, and Ash was surprised to learn that she was also from Kanto, in Cerulean City, which was only a few hours from his house. She was the heir to the gym there. Drew was also apparently the son of a Pokeball company mogul. They both looked at Ash pointedly, expecting him to come up with a story from his illustrious life. Which was non-existent.

"Um...yeah. My dad was a Pokemon trainer?" Ash said, searching for at least something to say.

"Really? That's cool! What's his name?" said Misty. "I watch the League every year."

"Yeah, me too. His name is Red," Ash said.

Misty cocked her head. She didn't recognize the name.

"Well, he wasn't that famous. He only made it to the League once," said Ash.

"That's still cool, though!" said Misty. Ash could tell she was trying to be nice. "It must be cool getting battling tips from him."

"Actually...he left when I was ten. I just live with my mom."

There was a brief silence.

"I'm… sorry," said Misty slowly, and Ash knew that she didn't know quite what to say. No one ever did. He looked at her face; she was trying not to look at him. She had pale skin and green eyes, and her long red hair fell down her back. She was pretty, but Ash had a feeling that he would never want to be more than friends with her.

"It's fine, don't worry about it," he said, and she smiled.

The three of them talked for the rest of the long hours on the train, until the train lights went on from the dark outside. The strange thing was, though both Misty and Drew were loud and outspoken, Ash didn't feel out of place at all. He didn't find himself annoyed, like he usually did. He wasn't one hundred percent comfortable; he barely knew these people. But they seemed to have done what years of hanging out with other hadn't. Not that he didn't like his other friends, which he definitely did. He was going to miss them. But this was a different kind of feeling.

"Look, I think that's it!" said Misty, crawling over Drew to look out the window.

The forests they had been traveling through for what seemed like forever suddenly gave way to a large clearing. There was an enormous campus with buildings made of bricks; Ash thought it all looked vaguely like a giant church. There was one clock tower. The lawns were green. There were lights lit everywhere for the dark, like old fashioned street lamps. He didn't even know schools like this existed anymore. The train slowly rolled to a stop.

They grabbed their luggage and teenagers in uniform spilled into the yard, talking loudly.

"Sweet," said Drew, as they followed a teacher brandishing a sign. "It looks like a movie."

The brigade stopped at a courtyard with a big yellow-red tree, and people in front of them started to disperse over the yard.

"I guess we're just supposed to wait here until they're ready for us to come in," said Misty. "We already waited twelve hours on the train, how much more do they expect us to hold up for?"

They were about to find a place to sit down when Drew stopped them.

"Hold up. We need to find more people for our group."

"You call this a group?" said Misty, but Ash could figure that she planned, at least for now, to make the three of them friends. As he had met no one else up to this point, he had also figured that.

"Yeah. We have to be careful about this. I know I want that girl Ash was staring at eventually. But I feel like she's not going to come easy. So who else…"

"Another boy?" suggested Misty.

"No, we need another girl. Someone really hot. No offense Misty, but you're cute at the most."

"Oh really," she said, rolling her eyes. "And why can't we find a hot guy for me?"

"Don't you think Ash and I are more than enough?" asked Drew.

Misty stared at Drew for a second, than at Ash, who looked away. She shrugged. "Touché."

Drew grinned. "Thank you very much. Now let's go."

They wove through the crowds, Drew for the most part seemingly unimpressed. Ash wasn't really paying attention when Drew suddenly flung out his arm to stop him.

"What?" said Ash. He almost tripped.

"I found her," said Drew. "Perfect ten."

Ash followed his eyes to a girl standing at the far end of the courtyard. She was neither short nor tall, and she had brown hair and what he thought were blue eyes, though he wasn't quite sure. She was a little curvier than Misty or the dark haired girl on the train, and well-endowed. She pretty much looked like what most people would consider hot, Ash thought. Going by that definition, he supposed that she would be better looking than the other two girls, even though they were both also attractive. But somehow Ash found himself thinking the dark haired girl was prettier. He wasn't quite sure why.

"Woah, what size bra do you think she wears, Misty?" said Drew, still staring at the girl.

"Could you stop being a perv for one second?" said Misty, shoving him away.

Drew smiled. "I got this. Watch and learn, Ash."

He walked up to where the girl was standing, and she looked up at him as he got close, waiting for him to say something.

"Are you religious?" he said to her. "Because you're the answer to all my prayers."

Misty put a hand to her face and shook her head, Ash just stared on in disbelief. Drew kept smiling, waiting for the girl to respond. To Ash's surprise, the girl smiled slightly back.

"You're going to have to try harder than that," she said.

"I lost my phone number. Can I have yours?"

"I didn't mean like that."

Ash was sure that if Drew wasn't good looking, he would be rejected by the girl faster than he could finish his sentence. But he was holding her attention, which was impressive considering the circumstances.

"Does he even know what he's doing? I can't believe he's doing this right now," said Misty from next to him. She sighed.

"I think he might, actually," said Ash.

"What about this?" continued Drew. "Do you have a map? Because I'm lost your eyes."

"Give it up," she said.

Drew appeared unfazed. "Do me a favor and I'll leave."

"What kind of favor?"

"Come hang out with me and my group."

"Your group?"

"Yeah, my group. I'm Drew, by the way."

The girl smiled and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Fine, Drew."

"Sweet."

She stood up and made to grab her luggage, but Drew picked it up for her. She rolled her eyes and followed him to where Misty and Ash stood, half petrified.

"This is Misty, and this is Ash," said Drew.

"I'm May," said the girl. "Nice to meet you."

She stopped at Ash and looked him up and down. "Now you I could get to know."

Ash was embarrassed. He smiled lamely, but he knew it wasn't that believable. Ever since he could remember people had told him that he was good looking; he wasn't bragging, it's just how it was. Girls in middle school would whisper over him and his friends would rag on him for being a pretty boy; even adults sometimes would comment. He liked the attention when he was little, because he was always told that his father looked exactly the same when he was Ash's age. But after his father left, Ash didn't want to look like him anymore. And he didn't want to be any more different from his peers than he already was.

May looked at him strangely, and he could tell she was slightly put off by his reaction. Ash thought she was probably used to boys acting whichever way she wanted.

"Hey, come on, can you talk?" she asked, taking a step closer to him. She wouldn't stop looking at him, and for once in his life he was, for whatever reason, at a loss for words. He wasn't particularly attracted to May, but she seemed to be good at whatever she was doing. He made a mental note to never let her flirt with him again.

"That's just how Ash is," said Drew, "He doesn't talk much, but he's cool."

As much as Ash was relieved that Drew had broken May's gaze, he felt slightly annoyed that Drew had pretended like he knew Ash already. Or rather, he was trying to be annoyed. But it wouldn't come.

"Sorry, did I freak you out?" said May, finally stepping back from Ash.

"Kind of," Ash admitted. He had gotten caught up in his own thoughts again, something he did all the time. It was a bad habit.

"Sorry. You'll get used to it," said May. "Because we're going to be friends, right?" She smiled.

"Yeah," Ash said.

"So there you go," said Drew, coming in between them and putting his arms around Ash's shoulders. "Trust me, Ash, you better buck up now. High school is full of these kinds of opportunities, and you bet we're not going to miss any of them. Or at least I'm not."

"Ash, don't listen to him. Just because he already decided he's gonna be a player, doesn't mean you have to be," said Misty, rolling her eyes.

"We'll teach him how to be one," said May. "Don't worry about a thing, Ash! You're in good hands now."

"Really," said Ash, and they all laughed. It really wasn't that funny, but Ash joined in. He suddenly felt a sense of need. He wanted to be with these people. It was something he hadn't really ever felt before, and it felt different. He wasn't sure if it was in a bad way or a good way.

A bell rang from up the high tower, and the rest of the students started to file into the building.

"What's going on?" Drew asked someone passing.

"They're calling us into the freshman dining hall," the boy said.

"We better go, we don't want to be late," said Misty as the boy and the rest of the students slowly vacated the courtyard.

"No, I have an idea," said Drew.

"What is it?" hissed Misty.

"The four of us are going to go in late."

"Are you crazy? This is our first day," said May.

"Don't you want to make an impression on all the other kids? I already made this group. We can do it."

The last of the students disappeared into the double doors, and they shut with a bang. No one remained in the yard except for them.

"So what about making an impression on the kids, what about making a good impression on the teachers?" said Misty. Her voice sounded panicky.

"They can't send us home, it's our first day. Come on. We'll make an entrance."

"This is stupid."

"We're already late anyway," said Drew.

"I think we should do it," said Ash suddenly. The two girls looked around at him with a mix of awe and horror.

"I'm serious," said Ash. He was. He wasn't quite sure why he felt they should, but he was excited now. This was nothing new for him.

"Well, if even Ash wants to do it, I'm in," said May, flipping her hair.

"Really, May?" said Misty, desperately looking around for help, but finding none.

"Don't worry. If they do actually get mad we'll say we bullied you into it," said Drew.

Misty flushed. "You don't have to do that," she said. "Fine. I'm in too."

"Sweet!" said Drew, his face lighting up. "So we're just going to walk in and sit down. Don't wait by the door or anything. Just act really confident like you're above everything."

Misty sighed, but she followed the group to the dining hall.

"Ready?" said Drew, and he pushed open the doors.

A hundred pairs of eyes turned around to look at the four of them, including the teachers at the front of the hall.

Drew started to walk, and Ash and the girls followed him, not too fast, not too slow; he was aware of the stares but he kept his eyes ahead as whispers erupted around them. They sat down at a table near a window.

The teacher on a podium looked at them cooly. "That's two demerits for each of you once term starts," he said.

Drew just smiled back at the teacher, and the rest of the group followed suit. Not knowing what to say, the teacher continued his speech.

"See, it wasn't that hard," whispered Drew. "Now everyone knows who we are."

"Is that a good thing?" groaned Misty.

"It will be," said Drew. "Trust me. Not to brag, but we as a group look pretty good. This wouldn't work otherwise. From now on this is how we're going to work at this school."

Misty scoffed, but as soon as the speech was over and dinner was served, kids started coming to their table. Ash let Drew do the talking. He thought that even if he wanted to, it was too late to get out of the group. But he found he didn't want to. He wanted to stay.

* * *

><p><strong>Present Time<strong>

Ash thought that maybe it wasn't a good idea to group all the injured in one place, but then again, what were they supposed to do? No one seemed to have much to say as they gathered around.

Until Clemont spoke up. He coughed a few times, and his voice was not so much a wheeze as it had been. He managed to sit up. Someone had tried to staunch his bleeding using his blazer, and Ash couldn't tell if it had worked or not. But Clemont was better than he had been when he was carried out of the school, so Ash was relieved. At least he had saved one person.

"It's not safe near the school. If a bomb is dropped, the number one rule is to not stay in the area it went off. Plus, the school is on fire."

Ash and the others looked back. The sky had been choked by the great plumes of black smoke; the fire had spread from the dorms. Almost the whole school was consumed. But the front of the building still remained.

"We're going to have to go into the forest," Clemont continued.

Objections rose quickly, and soon the group had descended into chatter. Some people were crying, Ash noticed. He didn't have time to. And he was never one to cry, either. The last time he had cried was a very long time ago.

Finally he grew tired of hearing everyone's panic and he stood up.

"You guys!" he said loudly, and to his surprise everyone turned. "Let's go into the forest if we want to get out of here alive. Once the fire is down, we can come back and call for help."

Everyone grew quiet.

"You're right," someone said, and everyone else appeared to agree. Why they had not listened before Ash had no idea.

"Let's go, then," said Ash. "If you're healthy, help someone injured."

Slowly the group gathered themselves. Ash went back to Clemont, who could walk if he leaned on Ash's shoulder. It was going to be a slow pace, some people had to be carried, others were in no shape to walk faster than a shuffle. But they started off, and soon they entered the tree line.

Ash took one last look at the burning school before he trudged into the redwoods.

The academy was surrounded completely by forest, with only the train track as any guide to civilization. There was also a river, but where it led was anyone's guess. The had no particular direction in which to head, so they just headed straight. Ash thought they should head at least in the general path of the train tracks, just in case they saw anyone. But since distancing themselves from the school was their first priority, the railroad was soon out of sight.

After a while, Clemont stopped. "I can walk by myself. I don't want to slow you down."

He took a few steps away from Ash, but he staggered slightly and Ash could tell he was in pain.

"It's fine," Ash said, putting Clemont's arm over his shoulder again. "Why are so worried?"

"Nothing, sorry…"

Clemont was strange. Ash wondered why he was so anxious. Maybe it was because they never hung out at school, and suddenly they were forced to cooperate. Well, it's hardly the time to feel embarrassed, thought Ash. They were all going to have to work together if they wanted to get anything done. Or survive, probably. Ash was a little tired, but he was fine. He was in the best shape of his life, he worked out a lot and he played rugby and soccer at school. So he could handle having Clemont, who probably didn't weigh more than one hundred twenty pounds, on his shoulder. Even if he was tired, he didn't want someone else to die. He was pretty sure Clemont wouldn't make it if he didn't have someone to help him.

After two hours passed, however, he was tired. His breath came as heavy as Clemont's and the dirt seemed to pummel his shoes. His uniform was uncomfortable and stiff. Everyone else seemed also about done.

"Can we stop?" said someone, and everyone wearily followed suit. They sat around in a clearing, for a moment, catching their breath.

Suddenly a faint boom sounded through the trees.

"What was that?" asked Paul, standing up.

"I think it came from behind us," said Drew, who also stood up. Someone, probably May, had wrapped his shoulder with his blazer.

"From the school…" Ash said. "Something else happened."

Everyone was too tired too look panicked, but Ash knew they were. He was. They looked to the three standing boys, waiting for some kind of direction.

"If the school is destroyed, we shouldn't all go back. I'll go," said Ash. "If it's just me it'll be faster. You guys left markers."

"I'll go with you," said Drew. "Just in case something...happens," he said.

"No, Drew, you're hurt," Ash said. He kind of wanted to go by himself, just in case the school was destroyed. He didn't want anyone else to see him react.

"Have you seen your own face?" said Drew. "Besides, it's safer if we both go."

He was right. Ash couldn't argue with him. "Okay, Drew and I'll run back."

"I'll go too," said Paul, looking over.

"No, you stay here and make sure nothing happens," said Drew.

Paul looked at him steadily. "Fine," he said.

"Okay," said Drew. "Let's go."

Ash and Drew left the clearing, the rest of the group watching them as they disappeared into the trees.

Ash held on to a vague sort of hope that the school hadn't been blown up as they ran over the dirt and rock. He wondered why he was so worried. He had always wanted to leave the school and never come back. He hated the halls and the uniform, he hated having to study for tests he would never need in real life. So he wasn't sure why that now his heart pounded in his chest.

But it did, and he and Drew ran with a sort of fever through the woods, not talking to each other. They had been moving so slowly before that it took them barely more than an hour to reach the school.

Or what had been the school.

Ash stopped, panting hard. The school was gone.

What?

What remained was a smoking pile of black.

Ashes came to rest on his shoulders, his hair.

How?

He felt nauseated. He didn't quite know what to say. He and Drew stared at the wreckage before them for a second, before Drew spoke.

"I guess they came back and finished the job," he said quietly.

Ash nodded vaguely, but his mind was elsewhere. He had never realized how much the academy had meant to him until he saw it here, not even a school anymore. But it had been, after all, where he had spent the best days of his life. With his friends. The people who had made him open up to the world, who had first made him smile for real. And he had met Dawn there.

But Pokemon Tech was gone, decimated, and it wasn't going to come back. Even if they rebuilt it, Ash thought, it was his last year. But he wasn't sure if that was even possible. His school was gone. His girlfriend was gone. Ninety percent of the students were gone. A small part of him was glad, however, to know that Dawn hadn't been there to die in the bombing. But he couldn't help think that a quick death would be better than whatever faced her wherever she went. He shook his head, trying to clear it. No, he couldn't think that. He had to believe that she was alive.

"We should go back," said Drew.

"Yeah...you're right," said Ash numbly.

On the way back he felt his school shoes pound into the ground and his feet hurt, but he kept running, Drew following behind him. The more he ran the more dumbfounded he felt himself becoming, until finally his mind was as numb as his feet as he came to a stop in the clearing.

Everyone looked up at him, faces hopeful, waiting, for him to deliver the news. He didn't want to say it, and he jerked his head slightly at Drew, hoping that for once Drew wouldn't to the opposite of what he wanted him to do. But Drew understood, and he spoke for Ash.

"The school is gone. We think whoever bombed us first dropped a second bomb. It's a good thing we didn't stay back."

Some people gasped, but most stayed silent like Ash, playing the situation over in their heads, he thought. There was a moment of silence before a boy spoke up.

"How are we supposed to contact anyone now if the school is gone?"

Ash's heart sank even lower. He had been so wrapped up over losing the school that he hadn't even thought about their own survival. What might have been their last chance at shelter and communication was gone in the wind. They were more isolated than they had ever been.

The boy kept talking. "All the telephones, computers, cell phones, everything! What are we going to do now? We're miles and miles from the nearest town!"

"Don't get everyone riled, Trip," said Paul, almost lazily.

Trip quieted, silently fuming.

But he was right, Ash thought. He didn't know what the next step to take would be. It looked like they were stuck in the middle of the forest.


	4. Not a Leader

Ash stood next to Drew and watched as the clearing exploded in an uproar of voices, not knowing what to do. May walked over to them.

"Everyone's gone crazy, haven't they?" she said. Ash hadn't noticed it before, but of all the students she looked like one of the most beaten up; her skirt had a gash in it and the bottom of her shirt was torn off from when she had tried to fix his face. Ash didn't know how he looked, but he was guessing he didn't look much better.

"No one's helping anything," said Drew. "This is the one time I might actually want the student council to take charge. No offense, Ash."

Ash didn't feel like laughing, so he instead offered a wry smile. Drew took note and made no further comment.

"If you guys aren't going to say anything, I will," said May. "Hey, everyone!" she yelled across the clearing. "We're not going to solve anything just by standing and arguing. We need to think of a plan."

The students looked up, some looking slightly annoyed. Ash could tell that they didn't want to be bossed around by May, who had admittedly always been pushy.

Paul stood up from sitting against a tree. "We should elect a leader," he said. "Or else we're not going to get anywhere."

Assent was murmured throughout; Paul looked over somewhat smugly.

"So, we should vote," he said, looking around at everyone. "I think-"

"I think Ash should do it," cut in a small voice from the far end of the clearing; Ash wasn't sure how it had carried far enough to reach everyone.

To his surprise, it was Misty. He had honestly almost completely forgotten about her once he heard that she was alive. She was standing, he was glad to see. The shoulder part of her shirt and blazer had been burnt off, and the skin that remained was red and streaked. The rest of her seemed fine, but it was clear she was shaken. Ash stared at her for a moment before remembering that she had spoken.

He be a leader? He didn't think that was possible. Besides, he didn't want to. He no more wanted to direct the group of injured, confused, teenagers than he wanted to go to college. But he could hear people agreeing with Misty.

"Yeah, Ash should," said Drew. "He's the vice president, after all."

"Will you please stop mentioning that?" said Ash. "Is Cilan here?"

There was a small silence. No one wanted to mention that Cilan had probably not come out alive.

"But student council aside, you should do it, Ash," said May. "Everyone who thinks Ash should be our leader, raise your hand," she said defiantly.

"Come on…" said Ash, but instead he was greeted with the sight of hands in the air.

He was surprised, but at the same time he realized part of him had expected it. He had expected it? He looked around at the people, some bloody, all dirty; all raising their hands in the air and staring at him. They were waiting for him to say something. He didn't have a plan. He didn't know if he ever would. But he didn't want them to die. And more than that, he didn't want his life to be in the hands of another person.

"He doesn't have to if he doesn't want to-" started Paul.

"No. I'll do it," said Ash.

"Then it's settled," said Drew quietly.

Paul looked almost angry for a moment, but he quickly regained his composure. The rest of the group was silent. It took a second for Ash to realize that they were still staring at him, waiting for him to give some direction as to what to do.

He was right; a girl asked, "What do we do now?"

Ash hadn't asked that question to himself yet. But he did now, and as he felt the eyes of many boring into him, he knew he had to think quickly. He needed more time. But one thing was for certain.

"We can't stay here," he said. "Not while we have injured. We need to get a hold of someone. No one has anything that could possibly communicate with anyone, right?"

Everyone shook their heads; it was very against the rules to have Holocasters on their person during class time. And no one had escaped with their school bag or any materials at all.

"Then I think our only sure chance to get to rescue is to follow the railroad. I don't think anyone will notice anything happened to the school for a while; it's so far from anything and it's privately owned. At least we know we're going somewhere with the railroad, and we can hope to run into a train or be seen, since there isn't going to be any trees above us. We don't have time to wait for rescuers to come to us, so we're going to have to go to them. Once we find rescue we can notify Team Rocket and file a report. Obviously someone did this to us. Me and a couple others saw a helicopter. And they kidnapped one of us."

He stopped. He wasn't sure where all the words had come from. He hadn't had a plan a second ago, but now he suddenly did. Remembering all the students, he backtracked.

"I mean, that's just what I think. Does anyone else have anything better?"

Most people shook their heads, and Ash was relieved that everyone seemed to have at least agree with what he said. Not like they had a better option at this point. But he was secretly glad that they had agreed with him. He was scared as to what might happen if they all didn't listen to him and the group descended into madness again.

All the sudden, Paul spoke up. "I disagree." Unlike the rest of the group, he did not stare at Ash, instead he looked somewhere off in the distance. Ash found it unlikely that Paul had a better idea. What more could they do? Go back to the school? It was even less safe there.

"We should go storm the place that bombed us."

Ash was glad that everyone was too shocked for words, because he was sure that had this been any other circumstance the fragile civilized manner in which they were trying to conduct themselves would quickly fall apart. But what was Paul thinking?

"But we don't even know where it is," Ash said. They already knew what the organization or whatever was capable of. They could get themselves all killed. They had no weapons, food, supplies, or Pokemon. What could they possibly hope to do? It was like a suicide mission.

"That helicopter that I saw that took Dawn wasn't actually a helicopter. It's an air skimmer, and those things aren't built to go long distances. We're looking at twenty miles at the very most. And we know in which direction they went. It's not far. We can walk, even. It's a hell of a lot closer that finding rescue."

"Yeah, but what are we going to do once we get there?" asked Ash. The whole thing still seemed ridiculous. "We already know they're dangerous and might want to kill us. Who knows what they would do if we found out we were there."

"We're going to fight," Paul said. He now turned to look at Ash. Ash couldn't quite place the look in his eyes, but it unsettled him.

"I don't think it's a good idea," said Ash. "We need rescue, not another life-threatening situation."

"They took Dawn," Paul said bluntly. "Are you going to let them get away with that, Ash? By the time we find rescue, it might already be too late for her. If we don't act now, who knows what they're going to do, but you and I both know it's not going to be something pretty."

He turned to the rest of the group. "If you'd rather wait around and die, be my guest. Or we can take action and do something. We'll figure out exactly what that is once we get there." He paused. "We're all smart students, aren't we?"

It was a plan that made no sense. But what Paul had said became rooted in Ash's mind. They took Dawn. Ash would rather himself dies then her, if he was being honest, and he could potentially be reunited with her, alive, as soon as possible if he were to go with Paul's plan. He could fight for her. He didn't think he could live with himself if he didn't at least know that he tried to save her. _Are you going to let them get away with that, Ash?_

Following the railroad was the safest, most practical plan. Remaining at the school was out of the question. And yet Ash could not erase the seed that had been planted in his mind; _he could fight. _Dawn was somewhere out there. He briefly thought he should try to make decisions based on the wants and well being of the group as a whole, but he didn't ponder too long on it. He was their leader, yes, but what did that mean in a ragtag group of teenagers? Power meant little to nothing here. For once, they were almost on the same level. Almost. Old ties and social standings still remained to keep everyone in order, but who knew how long that would last? Ash had to act for himself. The same as everyone else would.

"Okay, let's do it," he said.

Across the way, Misty looked at him, startled, but May and Drew seemed ready to accept whatever. The rest of the group seemed uneasy but determined all the same, and no objections were brought up. Ash assumed it was settled then.

"Since it was his idea, Paul should be co-leader," spoke up one boy. Ash knew his name was Brock, but he didn't know him personally. He was tall with wide shoulders and tanned skin; easily the largest student out of the survivors.

"I'm okay with it if you are," said Paul, looking at Ash.

"Sure," said Ash. He didn't mind. It had been Paul's idea, after all. However, as he looked at the other boy, a slight part of him told him no. But, Paul was someone who was reliable. He was smart, and Ash knew he was the best leader he could ask for. He had to go through with the partnership.

Paul smiled, not a normal smile, but Ash was relieved nonetheless.

* * *

><p>By the time night had fallen, the group had settled down. They had decided to sleep; and it had been a labor trying to make sleeping arrangements. Most people had tried to make some sort of softer surface of pine needles, and gathered under trees. Almost all had fallen asleep, exhausted. Ash, however, was out in the middle of the clearing, and still awake. He lay on his back, looking up at the sky full of stars.<p>

As the hours passed, as the minutes passed; even the seconds, the more concerned he was about Dawn. What was she doing right now? Was she hurt? Was she sleeping? Was she being tortured? He had so many questions, and they wouldn't stop coming. And for now he had no way of answering them. Maybe in a week he would, when or if they ever reached where they were going. It was a crazy plan, and yet he found he could not force himself to dislike it, no matter how many problems there was with it.

Misty breathed softly on his right, facing him eyes closed. She had had to sleep on her side; her injured shoulder faced to the open sky above. It had gotten worse as the day went on; they had not been able to treat it at all. The most they could do was not touch anything.

Drew lay on his other side, with May next to him. Drew had tried to give May his blazer as a blanket, but she wouldn't take it. She had been the first to fall asleep, however, and without her knowing Drew had then draped it over her. It was cold; he didn't know how Drew could stand it. And he didn't know how May would react in the morning when she woke up to see what he had done.

But he was glad that they were all together. But there was someone missing, and that was Dawn. He wished she could be next to him, so he could feel her heat and know that there was at least one thing that had remained when everything else had been taken away.

He was going to find her. He had to.

* * *

><p>Serena thought she was the only one awake. She couldn't hear anyone else and could barely see anyone; the tree she lay under cast dark shade over her surroundings.<p>

She still didn't know what to think about everything. She was pretty much unharmed, but for a few small cuts and scrapes. She was glad for it. It was cold outside, and the wind blew through the clearing.

Their plan seemed crazy. Some people had grumbled about it afterwards, and Serena had listened to their conversation. But most seemed to be fine with it. After all, they couldn't just wait to die.

She sat up and brought her knees to her chest, trying to conserve some warmth. She didn't know any of the people around her very well; she knew some of their faces and names but it was none of the girls she had hung out with. She hadn't seen Iris or Bianca since the bomb, and she didn't think she would see them again. The classroom in which they had been in was destroyed. She would have been within the same section of the school too if she hadn't been running late trying to put on makeup. It hadn't hit her yet that they weren't coming back. She tried not to think about it.

It was weird that such a shallow act saved her life. Something like that shouldn't have, and yet it did. She touched her face; she wasn't sure how it looked now. And the only reason she had been so worried about how she looked was because he was in her next class.

Ash had never really noticed her, ever, except for that one time. She was secretary on the student council, but he never had directly talked to her, even at meetings. Not that he ever talked much at meetings; except for arguing with Cilan or say something to Dawn. She could tell he hating being there, but she wasn't sure why he had even run in the first place.

And now he was their leader again. The same people who had complained about the plan had also complained about this; they didn't want the popular kids to lead them. But everyone respected Ash is some way or another, and Paul wasn't part of Ash's group.

No one really knew what to call the group, and yet everyone knew what the others were talking about when they said "the group." Ever since the four of them walked in late the very first day, they had stuck together. Serena had initially hoped to become friends with them, but only Dawn had joined their group after that. And by then Serena had found other friends. But still, she always admired them from afar.

Everyone knew they were on their own level, not necessarily higher but on their own wave length, and they never truly let anyone in. They hung out with lots of people, but it was the group of five that really stuck together. It seemed like they only trusted one another, though they were generally nice to everybody.

Some people resented them but everyone respected them. And Serena was fine to look on. And since the first time she saw him, she watched Ash. No one really knew that she liked him, but she was just surprised that no one knew. In sophomore year, he and Dawn had started dating, and Serena could only watch. A thought came to her mind: Dawn isn't here.

Why would she think that? she thought. What kind of awful person would? Right, it was her that thought that. She was average. She was just _there _at the school, not sticking out and not standing out; just there. She wasn't smart like Dawn, nice like Misty, or pretty like May, she was just a wallflower. Sometimes she hated it.

But this wasn't the time to think about that. She cursed herself silently. She should be thinking about their survival, or something to help the group, or anything.

She looked at Ash, lying on the field in between his friends. She was higher up on the ground then they were, sleeping in a slight indentation, and she could see that his eyes were open. She wondered what he was thinking of. She looked up at the stars, hoping to see what he saw, but she saw nothing.

His face was cut across by a red open gash on his right cheek. How did it get there? She didn't know. No one ever told her anything.


	5. Old Habits

_**One Day Ago **_

All the sudden Serena found herself thrown to the floor, the loudest noise she had ever heard left ringing in her ears. Her makeup she had been using clattered to the floor and rolled beside her; she struggled to get up but smoke obscured her vision. She needed to take a deep breath, but she couldn't. She began to panic before a brief thought crossed her mind that she had to stay calm, and she focused on taking small breaths in and out until finally her head stopped spinning.

The smoke was still there, and she could feel heat. That wasn't good. She could also hear screaming, she thought it might be her roommate. She got to her feet, reaching for the side of the desk but it wasn't there. She almost tripped but got upright. The whole side of the room was on fire.

The heat was becoming unbearable but Serena could only stare at the growing wall of flames until Misty gripped her shoulder, still screaming.

"Let's go! Come on!"

Serena nodded, turned on her heel and ran, threw open the door. No good, the hallway was also on fire.

"What do we do?" she screamed, getting panicked herself now. What if they were trapped there? She didn't want to burn to death.

"We're going to have to get out somehow!" said Misty. Misty had always been nice enough, but as roommates she and Serena had never talked much. It was strange to Serena that now all the sudden they were forced together, but the thought soon left her mind as the room grew hotter and hotter behind them.

"Should we just risk it?" said Serena.

"No, the hallway's too long. We'll never make it."

"The window?"

They both turned to look. Flames by the window.

"It's our only chance," said Misty. "If we go fast, maybe it won't hurt."

They were only on the second floor. There was grass below them. And fire between them. Serena wasn't sure…

"Okay, I'm gonna force myself to do this. 3...2...1…." said Misty, and all the sudden she was running to the flames, and through them, and Serena had to follow.

She could barely see from the black ash and smoke. At first the flames felt merely warm around her, it seemed they were mostly stamped out by Misty ahead of her. Misty wrestled the window open and threw herself at the screen.

Before Serena knew it, Misty was falling down, her shoulder a burst of flames.

Serena could feel the warmth grow searing on her back, and she took a deep breath and jumped.

She was falling, falling, and she looked up and could briefly see the smoke filled sky.

She hit the ground.

A pain rippled through her body, she couldn't move. She lay gasping for breath, the wind knocked out of her lungs.

Finally the pain subsided, but she felt something hard digging into her stomach.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Present Time <strong>_

Serena woke up. Her whole body was stiff from her jump from the bedroom and sleeping on the hard ground. Some people were awake, moving slowly around the clearing.

She brushed dirt off her blazer and felt something else there.

She took the blazer off, feeling it up and down; and there, in the right pocket, was a small Pokeball.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Four Months Ago<strong>_

Clemont had been the first one into class, like he always was. He didn't really have anyone he wanted to talk during passing periods, anyway. He greeted the professor and sat down, and gradually the rest of the classroom filled around him with students and chatter. Eventually, the bell rang and it grew quiet once again.

The professor began to greet the class when he frowned. He looked at the two empty seats. The rest of the class began to whisper.

Clemont didn't really care, it wasn't the first time the boys that sat there had caused the teacher and class do that.

"Ash and Drew," said the professor cooly. "Honestly, one day they'll just have to learn that not everyone will let them get away with everything. They can count on demerits if and when they arrive."

The class laughed nervously. Sure enough, ten minutes later, the two burst into the room. And sure enough, the professor reprimanded them. And sure enough, everyone thought the two of them were the greatest thing ever. Hmm.

Finally when the whole class was facing the front again the professor spoke.

"Well, after that bit of 'fun' I have your test scores to hand back."

Everyone groaned, it had been a hard test.

"Most of you need to come in and retake it, retakes will be Friday at seven."

The teacher started to walk down the rows,distributing the papers. Clemont saw various people's reactions; groans, gasps. In front of him, Drew cussed fluidly under his breath. He tapped Ash on the shoulder in front of him.

"Hey, what'd you get?" Drew asked. Ash shook his head and looked out the window. Strange.

"Most of you apparently did not study hard enough," said the professor. "I for one think that Team Aqua is an easy subject for a test. This is current events, you should know this."

When he got to Clemont, he stopped. "Now, class, pay attention. Clemont here got one hundred percent on his test yet again. Obviously this is a boy who's going places…"

Clemont felt slightly embarrassed as he felt the rest of the class's eyes on him, and not all of them entirely friendly. But he got over it soon after he was returned his test.

"I'm surprised about your long answers," said the professor. "You know a lot about the subject."

Clemont smiled.

* * *

><p><strong>Present Time<strong>

"But when did I give you permission to give me your blazer?"

Ash opened his eyes slightly. It was morning. He was surprised he had ever gone to sleep. He sat up slowly.

"Hey, you looked cold," said Drew, shrugging. As Ash had supposed, May was arguing with Drew. She always was.

"Well, I wasn't," said May stubbornly, attempting to fix her skirt.

"Well, I was just trying to be nice. Because we're in this situation now."

May looked at him for a second, then shook her head. "Sorry," she said. "Thanks."

Her words were a reminder to Ash, and he looked elsewhere. The events from the previous night were coming back. Now he was even less confident of the "plan," if you could call it that. But Paul's words came ringing back in his ears;

Beside them, Misty still hadn't woken up. Her shoulder looked worse, even more inflamed than it had the previous day. A jolt ran through Ash as he thought for a split second that she wasn't moving, but he saw that she was clearly breathing. But it was still strange that she hadn't woken up; the rest of the clearing had.

"Is she okay?" said Drew, from behind them. He knelt down beside her.

"I don't know if I should touch her," he said. "Misty. Hey, Misty."

Misty still didn't stir. Drew frowned.

"Misty, wake up." May nudged Misty's back. Misty opened her eyes groggily.

"Are you okay?" asked May, helping Misty to a sitting position.

"Why wouldn't I be?" said Misty, looking confused.

"Well, I thought… your shoulder…"

"It's fine," said Misty, but she stumbled as she tried to push herself off the ground, and winced as Drew accidentally grazed her shoulder.

"I'm fine!" she said again, as Drew brought her to her feet.

"We should try to get water to clean it, or something," said Ash. He knew Misty was lying about her level of pain. Her wound already looked infected.

He knew there was a river somewhere closeby in the woods. They had gone on many "field trips" over the years, which usually involved large amounts of boredom and very little sightseeing. Ash remembered tramping around randomly with his biology class, where he wasn't particularly friends with anyone. They had had to collect water samples from the river. He knew it couldn't be that far away.

"Let's go to the river," he said. "Everyone's probably thirsty, too."

"We're not supposed to drink river water…" said May.

"Well, we don't really have another choice," said Ash. "I'll go ask Paul."

He walked across the clearing to where Paul was sitting alone, working on something. When Ash got closer, he saw Paul had a stick in his right hand, and with his left he held a small pocket knife. He ran the knife vertically against the bark, forming a point at the end. He didn't look up as Ash came to a stop in front of him.

"Hey," he said, running his finger against the sharp edge. "This is almost done. I figured we might need it. For various reasons, you can imagine."

"Where'd you get the knife?" asked Ash. If Paul had been out at the tennis courts at the time of the bombing, it seemed strange. Plus, they weren't allowed to carry pocket knives or anything of the sort at school.

"You never know when you might need it," said Paul. "I don't listen to teachers. That reminds me, I have something to ask you…"

He looked up. "You said the helicopter that took Dawn had an M on it?"

"Yeah," said Ash, jogging his memory. "It had red around it. I feel like I've seen it before, too, but I can't remember when."

Paul smiled. "Do you take Current Events?"

"Yeah," said Ash. He did, anyway. Not that he probably retained any information from it. The class was boring. Not that he didn't care about what was happening in the world, it was just that Pokemon Tech was so detached from the outside that current events were almost irrelevant to him.

"You didn't figure it out? It's the Team Magma symbol."

Ash thought for a moment. Team Magma? He knew they were a terrorist group, but he remembered little else. They had been active in the news for a while, but it was always somewhat minor happenings. Had they bombed the school? If they had, then why?

As if Paul could read Ash's mind, he said, "I don't know why they did it. But it's definitely them. It makes sense."

Ash didn't think it made much sense, but the more he thought about it, it became clearer. Who else would it be. The red letter M flashed across his mind. They were dangerous. Now what did that mean for Dawn? Her situation was even more grave. And now that they knew they were potentially up against a terrorist organization, trying to rescue her seemed all the more ludicrous.

Paul stood up. "We're going to do it. Just trust me."

Ash stared at his for a moment, searching Paul's eyes for a sign of something. He found nothing, the dark eyes showed nothing that Ash could discern. But his stare made Ash uneasy, and he wasn't sure why. Maybe it was because Paul was so sure and Ash was not.

"We should get to the river," Ash said. "We're going to need water, and it goes kind of the same direction as the helicopter went."

"Yeah, sure," said Paul. "It's probably not far."

"Okay," said Ash.

"Let's go then." Paul walked past Ash, brushing past his shoulder. "Tell everyone then."

"What? You do it."

Paul smirked. "I'm not the leader. They chose you, not me. Rally the people."

His tone was sarcastic, but Ash could tell that he was more than a little bitter. Did he really want to lead them that bad? What did "leading" them mean? It didn't mean anything, unless he was hoping for recognition if and after they somehow miraculously got rescued. It was odd to Ash, but Paul had always seemed slightly like that. He acted like Ash had taken something away from him, almost. He could be the leader if he wanted. Ash didn't care.

But as he thought it, he realized that he did. Now that he was voted into the position, he felt a sense of obligation. And the competitive part of him didn't want to let Paul get his way. And if anything, if there was one person's judgement he trusted through it all, it was his own.

He followed Paul over to the others and told them they were going to the river. He was surprised how easily most of them agreed; he barely had to explain himself. Everyone gathered in the center of the clearing, waiting for him to give them further direction. It was a strange feeling, seeing everyone gathered before him. Watching him. It scared him briefly, and he wasn't sure how to feel about all those eyes, looking up to him.

"Okay, let's go," he said.

The group didn't have to walk very far before Ash could hear the rush of the river, and soon he brushed away bushes and saw the thin strip of sand that marked the beach.

People started running; stooped to their knees and drank the water, dipped their heads in. Ash stood and watched them for a while, before he went to join Drew and the others. It looked like they were arguing. Again.

"Just do it, Misty," May was saying. "No one even cares anymore. It's kind of a life or death situation, if you haven't noticed."

"I don't want to!" said Misty.

"Why not?" said May. "We just got bombed and now we're in the middle of the wilderness!"

"It's fine," added Drew. "It's not like everyone's looking."

"What's going on?" asked Ash, walking up to them.

May sighed loudly. "Misty doesn't want to take off her shirt so we can soak her shoulder."

Ash looked at Misty, who looked back at him defiantly. He wondered why she was making a big deal about it. It wasn't the time to be embarrassed about anything. They had crossed that line the second people had started dying. Misty kept looking at him, and he knew she wanted him to say something. But she had a bad burn, and they were going to treat it. There really wasn't another choice. Maybe if she wanted to cut the whole sleeve and the upper part of her shirt off. The shirt and blazer had been burnt away in the initial burned area, but her skin was starting to peel all down her arm and under her sleeve; it looked almost white and ashy. They definitely needed to do something about it.

"Just do it quick, and then just get in the water," said Ash.

"Can't we just put water on it? I don't care if my shirt gets wet," said Misty.

"Misty, it's not a big deal. Just do it," said Ash, with a lot more force than he meant to. Misty looked surprised. He immediately regretted his tone, but still. This was their life now. There wasn't any time to think twice. He wondered why she, of all people, cared about a superficial thing like changing in front of people. He had seen her in a bikini and such, it wasn't like she was scared. Maybe she was just trying to cling on to something normal.

But their situation wasn't normal. And it wasn't going to be. Even if they did end up getting rescued, Ash thought, would their life ever be _normal _again? Maybe his life was never exactly cookie cutter, but he couldn't imagine things going back to the way they were. As he stared at the river his thoughts grew, and soon they were consumed by the rushing water…

He snapped back to reality. This bombing and being lost and all _this _was more real than anything he had ever encountered, but at the same time he couldn't believe it. Every moment forced him to reconsider his emotions towards it. From now on, he thought, he was going to take everything head on. No hesitation. It was the only way he might make it out alive.

Misty was still staring at him, but now she looked concerned. He hadn't said anything for a while, he realized.

"Sorry," he said. "I just… yeah. This is our situation. I'm just saying we should get used to it."

"You're right," said Misty, tears forming in her eyes. "I just don't want it to be yet."

All the sudden Drew grabbed them all by the shoulders; Ash was squashed by May. To his surprise, Drew was _smiling. _

"Hey, you guys. It's fine. We're gonna make it out of here."

"I don't know, Drew," said Misty, still crying slightly.

"Well, even if we don't, we'll die together, won't we?" said Drew.

"That's not exactly comforting," said May, rolling her eyes. But Ash could see that her eyes were wet as well.

"That's not the point, the point is we aren't alone. Isn't that the best?"

May started laughing bitterly. "Oh yeah, Drew, we all got bombed together and now we're going to stay together forever!"

"Yep," said Drew, releasing them. He cut a strong figure, Ash thought, the sunlight coming behind him, framing him.

"We're gonna find Dawn. And we're going to get out of here. I know we will."

That's impossible, thought Ash right away. But as he thought it, he realized he wanted to believe what Drew was saying. So he would. He would go on believing it until he died. If he died. But he wasn't going to, at least not any time soon.

"Now, group hug!" said Drew.

May started to object, but soon she was pushed forward by Misty and pulled in.

Ash had an arm around Drew, and the other around May and Misty, and he for a moment couldn't hear the river moving and churning behind them.

* * *

><p>After everyone had finished by the river, they had finally begun to follow along the helicopter's path. Misty had complied and soaked her shoulder in the river, but even now, some four hours later, it hadn't looked much better. They all pretended like it had, however, and had walked along through the woods without much comment.<p>

Ash was concerned, however, about how slowly they were moving. Out of the group of seventeen, six were injured and four out of the six had to be helped along. And out of those four, two were doing so badly that they had to be half-carried, if not full out carried by the two hour mark. Ash considered stopping, but he had to keep pushing forward. Every moment they wasted was a moment that something could happen to Dawn.

He knew he was being selfish, but he couldn't help it. He thought had been selfish all his life. But now that he was the leader, he had to start making decisions for the rest of the group. But he couldn't bring himself to slow down now. Not when he just had made up his mind to move forward.

But not everyone was was as fast as he was. They were literally not as fast walkers as him, Drew, and Paul, and they weren't as quick to adapt the same mindset. He could hear some people complaining behind him all the way, but he only stopped when someone called his name.

"Hey Ash." He turned around. It was a girl who looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn't remember her name. Just like everyone else. He made a mental note: if he ever got out of the woods, he would make an effort to remember people's names.

"What are we going to eat?"

He had completely forgotten about that.

After the river he had been so pumped up that he had neglected to remember what was perhaps the most important detail besides water. Food.

Ash had no idea how long they were going to be in the woods, but if they were going to be walking and burning calories, they were going to need to replenish the calories spent. And that was probably a lot. Ash suddenly felt hungry.

Now that he thought about it, he hadn't eaten in over a day, since the bomb had hit right before lunch hour the previous day. To his surprise, he realized it was probably the longest he had gone without eating, ever. It was strange to think, but even when he and his mother had no money for anything else, there was always food. He never skipped meals. He liked eating. A lot.

So now what were they supposed to do? "We'll think about it when we stop walking," he said.

"And how are we supposed to fight without Pokemon?" asked a boy. "How do we even know where we're going? No of us saw this helicopter you said you saw! Are you sure they took Dawn? I mean, we were all scared and stuff-"

"If Ash said he saw a helicopter, he saw a helicopter," said Drew.

"Well, fine, but-"

"Where are we going?"

"How long is it going to take?"

"Why aren't we getting rescue?"

"I want to go home!"

"You guys!" yelled Paul suddenly from the back of the group. Everyone turned slowly to look at him. He leaned on his walking stick, its sharp point facing the sky.

"We'll figure it out when we get there. Trust me. Trust Ash. We know what we saw and we're gonna go find the people who did this to us and Dawn, too. No one's going to die. I promise. You guys just have to trust us."

He spoke and there was silence. Ash noticed that every time Paul had talked everyone had listened. Maybe it was his voice, or maybe because he looked like he was the only one who knew what he was doing, or maybe even the sharp object in his hands, but the group was suddenly still. Ash didn't know what to think. He listened to the wind through the trees, and it sounded so loud it almost gave him chills.

* * *

><p>As the group grew silent, Serena felt inside her pocket. He fingers wrapped around the curve of a sphere. Her Pokeball. It contained her Fennekin, she knew that. It could help them. Something about Paul scared her. She looked at Ash. He was their leader, she could tell him about it. But it was Ash. She opened her mouth, and hesitated.<p>

"Okay, it's decided then," said Ash. "Let's keep going."

And just like that, he was moving forward and she didn't have the heart to walk faster forward through all the moving people and just tap him on the shoulder and tell him…

Why I am always like this? she thought.

"Are you coming, Serena?" Trip said, turning around.

She gritted her teeth and forced herself to move forward. She would tell Ash later.


	6. Someone Lost

Serena's feet hurt. Her school shoes had always been stiff, and on top of that they were now too small for her. She was still wearing one of the same uniforms she had had since freshman year; one of the "struggles" of the few middle class people at the academy including herself was the uniform and tuition fees. Originally her uniform had been too big, but now it was almost too small. She wrote to her parents asking for another one, but they had told her no, since it was her senior year.

She didn't much care to go home for all the holidays, since her mother always pressured her about rhyhorn racing and whatnot. There weren't many people who stayed at school during the breaks, but she remembered that Ash always did. He didn't stay in the common areas with the other students. Serena remembered watching him run around and around the school track, by himself. She had always wondered what he was thinking; his face looked so serious. Now it was no different. She wished now she had gone back home during the holidays, so maybe she could have seen her mother again…

The wind bit at her lips. It had gotten colder, and the wind stronger. Still they trudged on. She walked two, three, four, steps behind Ash. Every time she thought she was going to tell him about the Pokeball she faltered, and fell back behind. She was right behind him again. She was worried that he could hear her breathing hard; she wasn't used to all the physical activity.

She was slightly intimidated by his friends as well. She knew she shouldn't be, especially now considering their situation, but she still was. A girl like her never talked to people like them. Well, that wasn't entirely true. Serena had talked to Misty a little, since they shared a dorm room. And she had talked to Dawn at student council on occasion, and found her to actually be nice. But she didn't know May and Drew at all. Or Ash, for that matter.

But now Ash was walking alone, ahead of the pack.

This was her chance.

She took a deep breath. It was now or never.

She went forward, until she was side by side with him. He looked down. He was so much taller than she was.

"Ash?" she said. God, her voice was breathless.

"Yeah?" He looked at her in the eyes. She was thrown off guard for a second, before she remembered to regain her composure. Before she could say anything, however, he spoke again.

"It's Serena, right?"

She didn't know why she was surprised that he knew her name. After all, they had shared classes together for the past four years and they were both on student council. So he should know her name. But still, to hear him say it gave her a little shock.

"Yes. Uh...I have something to tell you."

"Go ahead," he said slowly. "What is it?"

"I have this," she said, pulling out her Pokeball.

His eyes widened for a second before his face regained its previous rather deadpan expression.

"It's my Fennekin," she said, suddenly feeling embarrassed again. "Now we can make fire and other stuff."

"Why didn't you say anything before?" he asked.

"Oh, I didn't put two and two together…" Serena mumbled. She didn't want to tell him why.

"That's great, though," said Ash. "Thanks a lot. This'll help us out a ton."

He smiled at her and she thought she might faint for a brief second before she pulled herself together. She was going to have to get used to him, since they were probably going to be together for a while.

Ash called Paul over, who took the Pokeball from Serena's hand. Serena noticed he was the only one not wearing the school uniform, he was wearing gym clothes. He was completely unhurt as well, but for dirt. He was lucky he had been outside the school when the bomb dropped. He rolled the ball back and forth between his hands, then pressed it to expand and shrink it. He looked like he was thinking about something, but Serena didn't know what.

"That's awesome," he said. "This is just what we need. I'm gonna tell the others."

He turned around, holding the ball in the air. "Hey everyone! We have a Pokemon!"

The rest of the group looked up, not quite putting it together.

"This means fire, it's a Fennekin. And it can help us catch food. Serena had it."

There were some gasps, but Serena was relieved to see that they were happy ones. The quiet lifted. Serena could feel the moral raising, raising. She was glad she could help. At least she could contribute something.

People were coming around and thanking her, and she smiled back. When the party finally moved on, she did not walk alone. She was glad, she thought, even in such a terrible situation, to be part of everyone. And maybe now it was a little less terrible.

**Four Years Ago**

Serena was late for class. Again. She had to work on her time management, especially now that she went to the academy. It was a lot more work than she had in middle school, but not particularly harder. She had wasted time in her dorm, and now she ran down the almost empty hallways. She could hear her footsteps loud, and her books jostled together in her arms.

It was November, she had been at the school now for almost than two months. She both liked it and didn't like it, for various reasons. She liked her classes and the dorms; the building was like something out of a movie. But she hadn't met many people yet. She had some friends, but not nearly as much as she had had in middle school. For some reason, here she couldn't bring herself to be outgoing. Maybe it was because she didn't know anyone at the academy. No one else had gotten the acceptance letter that she knew, and as far as she knew no one in her town even had.

It wasn't that she hadn't tried to meet people. At the club sign-up day she had signed up for as many clubs that she could, even ones that didn't interest her. Soon after she had quit most of them. But now she was running for freshman student council, which was something she actually wanted to do. She had a button pinned to her blazer now. Vote for Serena.

Originally she had wanted to run for treasurer. But then she had found out that Dawn was running, and she quickly switched to secretary. She knew everyone would vote for Dawn. Dawn was someone everyone wanted to be friends with. She was pretty, which all the boys liked. She was smart, which all the teachers liked. And she was nice, which all the girls liked. She was basically perfect. And she he didn't have a firm group of friends yet, which made everyone even more interested in her.

Especially one group, that group. The ones that walked in late the first day at the entrance ceremony. They seemed to be everyone's favorite topic, even now. Earlier in the year Dawn had been walking with some other girls at lunch time, and one of the boys in the group had pulled her away and dragged her to their table. She had sat there, and since then, the boy had been talking to her, dragging her over to talk with the group whenever he could. She looks cautious, but she didn't look like she disliked it. Serena wondered what she was thinking.

All the sudden she bumped into something hard and she fell to the floor, her books flying out of her arms.

Why was she always so clumsy? She wasn't paying attention again, but as she scrambled to pick up her books, she found a hand holding one out for her.

She looked up.

A boy kneeled there, holding out her book, waiting expectantly.

"Are you okay?" he said. His brown eyes looked at hers, and she found she could neither stare at them or very well look away. Her breath caught in her throat.

She knew the boy, but she didn't, he was part of that group. He didn't talk much, but the girls liked him. In fact, she didn't think she had heard him talk once the whole year. But now she did. And it was something about his voice, raspy but clear at the same time, that drew her in. She must have bumped into him. Against her will, she felt herself blushing at his proximity to her.

"I'm fine, sorry," Serena mumbled meekly as she grabbed the book from his hand. He grabbed the others, gathering them up for her.

"No, it was my fault," he said. His voice sounded flat, not bored, but almost as if he hadn't found a reason to use emotion. But his actions contradicted his tone, he was helping her pick up her books, wasn't he? It was the strange combination of actions that made her wonder about him. Really, she knew nothing about him. At all. And she found she wanted to know more, but she just didn't know how to say it. It would be crazy at this point.

"I'm Serena," she said breathlessly.

He looked at her strangely. "Hey. I'm Ash."

And he held out his hand, and helped her to her feet. His hands felt rough and warm at a touch, and Serena almost forgot to let go.

"Well, see you around," he said, and he continued down the hallway and left.

He left Serena standing there, staring after him, unsure of why she was doing so, or why her heart was beating so fast.

**Ash **

So it was that at night they had fire. They had collected brush and pine needles, made a sort of pile, and the Fenekkin had lit it. They hadn't succeeded in catching any substantial food, as the night came faster than they had expected. Most everyone was hungry and therefore irritable, but the fire seemed to have lifted everyone's spirits at least a little. The fire crackled and sent up sparks into the sky above. Someone had suggested a signal fire, but it was vetoed after it was realized that starting a large fire was probably not a good idea, being in a heavily wooded area. The river remained somewhat close to them. They had decided to separate from it only when they had gotten close to Team Magma or whatever it was they were looking for. And Paul had estimated it would take more than a few more days.

Ash sat with his back against a tree. It reminded him of the tree he sat against in the courtyard at school, waiting for Dawn or talking with his friends. His friends were there, but without Dawn something was missing. Even in this situation, he thought, it would be a thousand times better if Dawn was there too. Maybe then he wouldn't feel as lost, like he didn't know what to do with himself.

All the sudden someone came over to him. It was a boy, with brown hair and broken glasses. He looked small. Ash thought he was probably a freshman or sophomore. He looked nervous, like he was scared of Ash. Ash was used to other kids acting like that around him, he knew what kind of vibe he gave off. He didn't mean to, but at the same time he didn't totally mind. Sometimes he kind of liked it. But since he was supposed to be the leader, he didn't want to have that image anymore. So he sat up and tried not to look bored, or let his brows furrow. He didn't know if it worked, because the boy looked as nervous as before. It occurred to Ash that maybe the boy was worked up because of something else.

"Um, Ash?" the boy said softly.

"Yeah?" said Ash. "What's going on?"

"Um, there's a girl over there, and she's not doing very well."

"Like how not doing very well?"

"Well... " The boy looked over to the edge of the group.

"It's fine, I'm coming," said Ash, getting up. "Don't worry. I'm sure she's fine."

Ash let the boy lead him. He came to a small group, gathered around someone. As he got closer, he started to think that maybe the girl wasn't fine after all. She had sweat all over her face, and her breathing was awkward. She had been one of the injured ones that others had had to help. Now he felt bad for making them walk.

He knelt down beside the others as they split apart to make room for him. The girl had a gash up her leg, which was discolored. He didn't think she had been able to walk on her own. Her breathing was labored. Her eyes looked up towards the moon, and Ash had the sinking feeling she wasn't seeing anything at all.

"What do we do?" someone asked him.

He didn't know.

"Paul!" he called, and a few seconds later Paul came running towards the growing group in the tree line.

"What's up?" he said before he saw the girl on the ground.

"What should we do?" asked Ash.

Paul stared at the girl for a few seconds, but it seemed like ages. Everyone looked at him, hoping for a response that would come out.

Finally Paul shook his head and said, "I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?" said another girl, looking close to tears. "She's dying!"

"Do you know?" said Paul.

"No, but-"

"Then don't get mad at me," said Paul, touching the sick girl's face. "Can you hear me?"

She didn't say anything, but her eyes suddenly grew wide. She drew a sharp breath in, and her breath pattern changed. She looked like a fish out of water, gasping for air. Ash was surprised that Paul was so close to her. He felt like running away, to get as far away from the dying girl as he could.

"Hey, breathe!" Paul said, holding the girl's shoulders. "In and out…"

But suddenly the girl took one last, awful, heaving breath and her body went slack in his arms.

Someone screamed. But Ash, like most everyone, could only stare at the lifeless body as Paul set her gently on the ground and stood up, wiping his hands on his shorts.

Suddenly, it all became real.

Ash gasped and stepped backwards, painfully aware of the strangled sounds around him. Someone had died… right in front of them. Just as they had taken a tiny step forward, it was there, this happened, a reminder of what was really the situation. Ash grew truly scared again for the first time since the bombing. Was this where the rest of them were heading? One by one, until only one person was left, having watched the bodies fall around them?

No, it couldn't be. It wouldn't be. He wasn't about to let that happen. He would survive. He would see his friends again. He would see his house again. And he would see Dawn again. It was too soon, too soon, for them to lose hope. He closed the girl's eyes.

"What was her name?" he asked, looking around at the others. To his dismay they chose not to look at him, but to look pointedly elsewhere.

"Does no one know what her name was?" he asked once more. Was she going to die unrecognized? She looked younger than him, probably an underclassman like the boy who had delivered her condition.

Finally one girl spoke up. "I think she was a year younger than me. She always sat… alone at lunch, in Professor Cramer's class. She didn't really talk much… I don't know her name."

Ash sighed. He felt awful, like something had to be done, be _justified,_ before the girl was sent off for real. He felt like she was waiting for something, some kind of validation that she had made an impact on someone's life, or something. Or maybe he just felt like he needed someone else to say something, so maybe he would feel less guilty about her death.

"Does anyone remember… anything about her?" he asked.

The group, now all there, looked down again. There was a billowing silence, broken only by the crickets and the crackling fire.

He didn't know what else to say, no one knew what to say.

"Let's all go to sleep. We'll just have to move on in the morning. It's too late for her; it won't do us any good to be hung up on it," said Paul, starting to turn back towards the fire. "I';; put out the fire."

It took a while for everyone to follow, and Ash was one of the last of all. He took one last look at her disfigured body, then forced himself to turn away and return to the rest of the group.

That night, it was hard for him to fall asleep. As well as everyone else, he could hear their incessant twisting and turning well into the night. It was uncomfortable. What had been her name? What had she liked? What had she thought of before she died?

Something was off, and he went to sleep uneasily.


End file.
